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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22881388">Bloody Meadow</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/d007/pseuds/d007'>d007</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>League of Legends</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>First Published Work, Gen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 09:53:56</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,161</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22881388</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/d007/pseuds/d007</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Soraka attempts to heal Jhin after his carefree murder façade breaks down.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>17</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Bloody Meadow</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I wanted to write two things so I crammed them into one thing. I have a very specific idea on why (and how) Jhin is the way he is, though I fear this won't get across here at all after I focused so much on writing Graphic Depictions of Violence. </p><p>First published fic, feel free to roast, dissect or criticize however you wish (in fact, please do. I rushed this quite a bit but I have no real idea on how to improve it).</p><p>I must also very belatedly give props and thanks to fellow new Ao3 publisher leecherish for giving me the idea to bounce Jhin off of Soraka.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The sun just barely reached the evergreen meadow. Incandescent droplets of water faintly clung to singular blades of grass, slowly soaking the white cape and dark leggings of the man who knelt on the grassy floor. He was fixedly staring at the fingers of his outstretched hand that he'd pressed against the ground, imperceptibly muttering to himself. The lilacskinned woman in front of him was looking at him with a mixture of sadness and disappointment.</p><p><em>They're dead, Jhin. </em>He tried to forget. Tried to pretend those words didn't exist. Drown them in blood, in repetition, in. His. Beauty. But they kept haunting his mind.</p><p>He clenched his fist, tearing up a fistful of grass as he did.</p><p>"Dead? Dead?" His sonorous voice rang out with its usual deep timbre. "You misunderstand. You must be..."</p><p>An unperturbed Soraka met his gaze with saddened eyes.</p><p>Jhin avoided them and soldiered on, though the desperation in him started to paint his voice. "You are ALL my puppets. It is by my strings by which you move and nothing else!"</p><p>He took a deep steadying breath only to once again flinch away from Soraka's deep starry eyes. Off in the distance, between the trees, an unusually fluffy white deer beheld the spectacle then leapt away.</p><p>"You- you must understand," he hissed "mustn't you, Star Child?"</p><p>The pity she beheld him with only deepened and he yelled with rage. He reached under his cloak, pulling countless flower traps, bullets and gun parts out of his bag, scattering them across the clearing. The traps triggered and he and Soraka both flinched away, watching as they distorted the air, entrapping torn blades of grass and drops of water, shimmering in the evening sun. Jhin panted.</p><p>"SOMETIMES FLOWERS BLOOM ONLY TO WILT. SOME SOLDIERS, FULLY EXPECTING TO, WILL <em>NEVER </em>RETURN HOME. ONE DAY YOU WILL SMILE AT SOMEONE FOR THE LAST TIME AND YOU WILL HAVE NO IDEA! THIS WORLD IS SO UNBELIEVABLY CRUEL AND I-"</p><p>Unflinching at his tirade, Soraka slowly raised her right hand, encasing it with blue magic and letting it slowly coalesce at the tip of her index finger.</p><p>An oblivious Jhin, grounded in his beliefs, purred "-I will make it beautiful."</p><p>"Jhin…"</p><p>Hoping to heal something, his fury, his bloodlust, his obvious, obvious grief, she brought her finger to his brow and let the magic flow. But it found no purchase. The blue ether aimlessly swirled around them. Jhin stared at her.</p><p>The magic must have dispelled some of his aches and pains though. That must have been the reason for the spark in his eyes he now regarded her with. Like he was entreating her to do something. Unnerved, she withdrew slightly, the magic swirling into her. Along with something else.<br/>
Jhin swayed a little when she moved, a dazed look in his eyes.</p><p>Cautiously, she brought her hand close to his head again and this time she noticed the flow of his life force interspersing with her magic. She felt her heart contort when she realized how easy it would be to drag it out of him.<br/>
Her heart lurched again when she saw that he'd felt that too. Saw what he'd wanted her to do.<br/>
Firmly, she pushed the flow of his life force back into him, his eyes briefly flashing up with starlight as she did, before returning to their black glow, with which he stared at her in disappointment.</p><p>"Shame." </p><p>The gun in his hand flashed with a single loud bang and broke the flow of her magic. Soraka faltered as the bullet pierced the soft flesh of her lower jaw, tearing apart her tongue and ripping through the back of her skull. Blood spurted from her mouth and her knees buckled. Droplets of it splashed into the grass around her as she fell.</p><p>Slowly, Jhin stood up. When Soraka arduously tried to raise her head with the same sadness in her eyes, the gun flashed twice, the bullets penetrating her chest and gut in a spray of blood.</p><p>"Hmm."<br/>
<br/>
...<br/>
<br/>
"FOUR!"</p><p>His fourth shot obliterated the hand she'd used to try and heal his madness and Soraka fell facefirst into the grassy clearing, twitched once and then lay still.<br/>
<br/>
Jhin slowly sighed into the forest's fearful silence. When he took his next breath, its timid denizens had already taken up their cautious rustling again. A foolhardy songbird had even started to fill it with its music once more.<br/>
Jhin regarded the celestial being lying in front of him in quiet contemplation, feeling how empty the stage was now. <em>I wonder how they see me.</em></p><p>And then Soraka started moving again. Jhin's hand twitched around Whisper but he stared as her left arm grappled forward as she tried to lift herself up with one arm.</p><p>"Hrmmmnn - uuuuuuuu-"<br/>
<br/>
Emotion filled him at her attempt to speak through failing organs and without a tongue. But he couldn't stay there. Soraka's stump started glowing intensely with blue light, coiling from her arm to around her body, encircling the bullet wounds in her skull, her back and looping back to her arm. <br/>
Her vertebrae poked out of her skin as her body tried to twist itself into standing upright, only for her magic to fix it again. Her momentum flung her to her feet, her legs straightening with a sickening crunch.<br/>
Her milky, lifeless eyes zeroed in on Jhin's face. Her thyroid gland bulged out of her throat and her bloodstained lips moved soundlessly as she tried to speak again then clamped shut with a violent, unnaturally fast shake of her head.<br/>
One of her eyes regained its natural hue, regarding Jhin with the same remorse as before.</p><p>Blood, bone and brainmatter squelched as her magic continued to indiscriminately repair her body. Some of it splashed onto the grass, reattaching the torn blades to their roots or simply smashing them into the ground.<br/>
Jhin's body tensed with adrenaline at the bloody, immortal being in front of him and he let out a shuddering breath.</p><p>"Wh- y- af- afraid?"</p><p>The Star Child raised a mangled hand, healing magic thickly draped around it like a blue serpent. Bone and sinew flailed and rearranged itself in an attempt to fix the hand Jhin had torn apart with his finale.</p><p>"Gui- y-"<br/>
<br/>
Soraka shook her head again and spat out globules of blood, bits of tongue and things Jhin recognized as pieces of grey matter. Her eyes, too aglow with magic to tell their state of repair fixed themselves on Jhin's once more.<br/>
She carelessly gestured with her slightly more corporeal right hand and Jhin's world turned blue.</p><p>After experimentally opening and closing her mouth, she managed a single, off-pitch "Sl- Sleep."<br/>
It twisted into what might have been a smirk.</p><p>But Jhin had only just enough time to form the beginnings of a smile, see her nod and hear her say "Rest." before the silence closed around him and stopped his heart, breathing and ability to think.</p>
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